Credit: News Journal Online.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/12/who-are-3-republicans-running-for-florida-house-district-27/73921005007/
There are more than two times the number of Republicans than Democrats in Florida House District 27, stretching from part of Ocala and southeastern Marion County, across rural northeast Lake County and over the St. Johns River into western Volusia County.
So the winner of the Aug. 20 GOP primary will, in all likelihood, replace Stan McClain, whose four-term limit ends this year.
Republican voters’ choices include two newcomers to politics: a retired police lieutenant and the proprietor of a camper trailer business, both of whom put their Christian faith front and center. They face a retired attorney and four-decade veteran of statehouse politics whose campaign contributions have dwarfed theirs.
Each of them takes similar positions on the standard Republican doctrine: America first, opposing abortion, fighting “woke” culture. The heat of this race emanates from who’s best positioned to represent District 27: a “regular guy” businessman, an “America First” grassroots campaigner, or the longtime Tallahassee insider.
Here is a closer look at each.
Beckie Sirolli: Seeing worst and best in humanity
Beckie Sirolli, 65, of Belleview, is a retired law enforcement officer. She started her career later than most, saying she celebrated her 40th birthday while in the police academy, but she brings 16 years of experience working in three agencies: the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments in Leesburg and Fruitland Park.
In the latter job, Sirolli retired as that agency’s first female lieutenant.
Her passion for public service spills over when she talks about her experiences working calls and cases, frequently involving at-risk youth.
“It was overwhelming how many kids were just skipping school, being defiant, using drugs, just poor life choices,” Sirolli said. “And we were called, officers were called to a home and were expected to solve that issue in the space of a few minutes, then with little to no resources outside of law enforcement, and there was nothing we could do unless they committed a crime.”
Some of the domestic violence cases she saw, she said will stay with her forever.
“You see the worst side of humanity, but then again you see the best side of humanity,” she said.
Combatting poverty and mental health problems are central to helping families, she said.
“To me, it’s this bigger, broader aspect of the breakdown in society of families,” she said. “That’s one of my big issues. I’m a Christian and it’s a lack of faith and hope in our community.”
She didn’t offer any specific proposals but said the justice system needs to become more fair in putting violent offenders in prison and moving non-violent ones out. It’s worth revisiting Florida’s “two-strikes law,” which sometimes results in decades-long prison sentences for people who haven’t committed a violent act, Sirolli said.
“Save the space for the repeat, violent offenders who are shooting each other and attacking children and vulnerable people and our officers,” she said.
She raised concern about prison conditions, which she said should foster rehabilitation in broken people.
“You have people in … they’re in older facilities with no air-conditioning in Florida, where we’re having the craziest heat wave, and that to me is unfair, undue or excessive punishment,” Sirolli said. “We are not a third-world country.”
Another priority for her is bringing dollars to the district for infrastructure to “better balance” growth.
“We have roads, schools, medical, first responders that aren’t able to keep up with the development. … They were already not keeping up with the existing population,” she said. “And so when you add in the development, it just makes it even worse.”
Sirolli said she favors campaign finance reform and wants to make elections safe, claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
Richard Gentry: Appropriations are ‘what I know how to do’
Richard Gentry, 73, of Astor, is an attorney who spent four decades in Tallahassee, representing and lobbying business interests, including the Florida Home Builders’ Association.
He was born in Daytona Beach and in 2009, anticipating retirement, built a home on the east bank of the St. Johns, just across the river from where his late half-brother lived. He moved back for good after retiring as Florida’s public counsel in 2022, but his opponents have accused him of carpetbagging as he only registered to vote in Volusia County in late 2023.
“You can’t beat the beauty of being here on the St. Johns River,” Gentry said.
But he couldn’t get used to the rhythm of retirement.
“After I got home and sat there for a while, I thought this is not right for me,” he said. “I still have a lot of ideas and thoughts left in me.”
So he ran, and where his opponents are critical of his Tallahassee experience, Gentry argues it’s an asset, particularly where it comes to bringing home the bacon.
“I represented Escambia County for 16 years and there wasn’t a year that went by that they didn’t need roads or water or sewer,” Gentry said. “So I know very well how to kind of get in there and get projects in the appropriations process. That’s what this district needs and that’s what I know how to do.”
Second, he said he knows what it takes to get a bill passed.
As far back as 1985, Gentry was involved in the process, giving input from the Florida Home Builders into a sweeping growth management law, and in 1992, again with the Sadowski Act establishing an affordable housing funding source.
The Growth Management Act required all Florida cities and counties to establish local comprehensive plans consistent with a state plan.
“We were all trying to make that thing as workable as we could because it in some of its first drafts it didn’t prove to be workable for frankly most of the parties,” Gentry said.
By 2011, bouncing back from a recession, new Gov. Rick Scott took to dismantling many of the growth management regulations. Gentry was on board.
“It was making most of our cities and counties across the panhandle non-competitive against Alabama and Georgia because they were able to accommodate growth and development in a fraction of the time and a lot cheaper than what our expansive act allowed,” he said.
But Gentry is also aware of calls across the state to limit development or at least bring infrastructure into balance with the growth.
“I believe in smart growth, which means that you try to either have the infrastructure in place or have it planned for the provision of infrastructure, and by planning I mean not only the local government planning it but also development has to plan with local government, I think, in order to have the infrastructure in place,” he said.
He also says he supports giving local governments more control to rein in growth.
Gentry has faced criticism for his work as the state’s public counsel, an office specifically designed to represent ratepayers before the Florida Public Service Commission. He did not challenge proposed rate hikes, including the largest in Florida history for Florida Power & Light in 2021.
Gentry said the public counsel’s office does not set rates, and that he didn’t recommend FPL’s first request, which was reduced before the commission voted.
“The role that I played was we did months of discovery and then we negotiated with the utility companies on certain issues that were then forwarded to the Public Service Commission. And they weren’t bound to take our negotiated issues. Basically, we were trying to streamline it to get it to the Public Service Commission,” he said.
Steve Shives: Banking on ‘regular guy’ appeal
Stephen Shives, 58, of Summerfield, drives a semi-tractor trailer with his name advertised on the side declaring himself the “regular guy” candidate.
He talks about “common sense” a lot and proudly presents himself as the candidate with the GED, not the PhD. He’s struggled, starting businesses, scraping by, failing, starting over, until he landed on a successful idea: Runaway Campers, making and selling mini-campers light enough to pull with a car or even some motorcycles.
“I’ve been in business for myself since I was 16 years old, so that experience alone has just been something that a lot of legislators just don’t have, the boots on the ground, learning the ropes the hard way,” he said. “But I think I bring a whole different common sense approach to solving problems and figuring out ways to meet the needs that I didn’t obviously learn in college.”
That Runaway Campers is “debt free” suggests Shives’ approach to government: prioritizing spending cuts over taxes.
Shives attacks “woke extremism.” When asked about it, he used the removal of Confederate monuments as an example of where Americans have gone wrong.
“We erect monuments to the heroes of our freedom for a reason, and then we have a whole generation of people who wants to destroy everything from our past, and create something completely new and foreign to what anybody even knows,” he said.
Shives equates removing monuments and statues to erasing history.
“To ignore it or try to abolish everything that ever happened, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, or whether we ignore every mistake, then how can we ever learn from it?” he said. “We definitely don’t need to destroy it, we just need to teach from it and learn from it.”
The answer to Florida’s highest-in-the-nation homeowners’ insurance costs, he said, is increasing competition through further deregulation.
“For example, if someone has a home that is paid for or is nearly paid for, and they could be offered an option of less coverage for less money if they’re willing to take a certain degree of risk for themselves, then you could get insurance rates down and make it a lot more competitive,” Shives said, theorizing that might also lead to lowered prices on full policies.
Shives posted on Facebook about an endorsement from Republican state Rep. Ryan Chamberlin of neighboring District 24. Shives is Chamberlin’s uncle.
Campaign contribution controversies
One of the stark differences between the three candidates is the money available to each campaign, with Gentry having been able to outraise both Sirolli and Shives.
Before Gentry entered the race, Sirolli said she and Shives reached an agreement.
“We shook hands and said we’re both Christians and we agreed we weren’t slinging mud against each other, that we were going to be standing on our own strengths. And that’s what we’ve been doing,” she said. “With Gentry, it’s a different story.”
They’ve both attacked Gentry, questioning the sources of his funding.
“My question for any voter, really, is can we rely on somebody that has had 40 years-plus of connections in Tallahassee and all of those years basically pushing and voting and influencing decisions based on what firm paid them to represent an issue? Can we really rely on that to, you know, to fairly represent the people? And not the money behind it?” Shives said.
Through June 28, Gentry raised $139,000, with more than 100 maximum $1,000 contributions from lobbyists and big-business interests from outside of the district. He had spent $48,000 of that. But he has a Friends of Richard Gentry political committee with $12,500, and, Shives contends, other PACs.
What does the money buy? Shives posted a video showing an attack against him suggesting he’s a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” when it comes to taxes.
Gentry said he has received support wide enough that he will not be influenced by any one donor.
“If I count every thousand-dollar (check) that I’ve got, I wouldn’t know where to go. I’ve got broad industries that find my views and philosophies to be favorable,” he said. “And frankly, I think if my opponents were to find groups that want to support them, they would love it. I make no apologies for asking my friends and businesses that I know about for contributions.”
Gentry said he has also received a number of endorsements, including the backing of the sheriffs of Marion, Lake and Volusia counties, with more yet to be announced.
Shives has largely self-funded, raising $18,000 in campaign contributions and giving his campaign two loans worth $127,000. Through June 28, he had spent just over $36,000 of that.
Sirolli has raised $12,000 with another $6,000 in loans and $8,000 in in-kind donations through June 28.